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If Bernie Ecclestone has his way, just two weeks before the Monaco Grand Prix, a 59-year-old city executive will line up on the grid in Monte Carlo for the historic race, at the wheel of the car once driven by his hero, double world champion Jim Clark.

The man in question is the most powerful in Formula One: Donald Mackenzie, chairman of CVC Capital Partners, the sport’s controlling shareholder, an affable but largely anonymous businessman who hates his private equity firm being dragged into the limelight. And they say you should not mix business with pleasure.

Mackenzie and CVC have made it to the 10th anniversaryCredit:
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But CVC’s ownership and his stewardship – or to many minds lack of, allowing the qualifying debacle to unfold in Australia, with even the drivers in open revolt against CVC and Ecclestone – has come under the microscope once again. This month marks 10 years since CVC bought the sport in what is thought to be the most lucrative private equity deal in history.

It is a deal which has extended years beyond its original design after a failed Initial Public Offering of stock in Singapore. It has seen them dragged into the courts of London and Munich over allegations – denied by Ecclestone and of which he has never been found guilty – that he steered the ownership in CVC’s direction by bribing a German banker, and has arguably stifled the sport thanks to a complex system of contracts drawn up in the rush for that aborted flotation.

Yet despite all the controversy, Mackenzie and CVC have made it to the 10th anniversary. It is understood that some of his colleagues are bewildered as to why he sticks with a sport whose chief executive, in Ecclestone, said he would not spend his own money going to a race.

There appear to be two vastly different reasons. The first, which explains Mackenzie’s loyalty to Ecclestone, is that the deal has made CVC rich. Or even richer, perhaps. In 2006 they paid around $1.7 billion (£1.2 billion) for a majority stake. Some estimates suggest they have since made between £2.8-3.5 billion. In 2014, turnover was around £1.1 billion, with £630 million going to the teams. Once costs are paid – the teams and race promoters pay most of these – CVC pockets the rest.

But the second reason for Mackenzie’s persistence relates to the historic race in Monte Carlo in May. He has fallen in love with F1, in awe of Ecclestone’s money-making machine. The 85-year-old helped organise for Mackenzie to buy one of Clark’s championship-winning Lotus cars from the 1960s. Clark is an idol to Mackenzie, a fellow Scot.

“Absolutely, 100 per cent he has fallen in love with it,” Ecclestone said. Is he emotionally attached? “Why not? He keeps his business thoughts away from his emotions.”

That analysis is not widely shared. Mackenzie himself stuck with CVC’s usual policy of staying silent. Others who know Mackenzie describe him as a “deal junkie”, but not someone brimming with ideas for what to do about F1’s malaise.

“It’s his baby, increasingly so,” one source says. Nick Clarry, another CVC executive, used to attend almost every race but is far less involved now. One example of this inaction came in a meeting of the Strategy Group, F1’s main decision-makers, last May. There were boasts beforehand from allies that Mackenzie was going to bang some heads together. He barely said a word.

Mackenzie has had to outsource solutions to the sport’s problems, commissioning Jean-Marc Huët, the former financial director of Unilever, to write a report shown at a meeting of F1’s board this month.

Although Ecclestone remains broadly supportive of CVC while it suits his end, he has expressed some misgivings. “I probably can’t take as many risks as I would like to,” he said. “I have been running things with my hands tied behind my back a bit. They’re very good and allow me a lot of freedom, but having said that, because we were going to float the company, we’ve had to run the business a bit more like a public company, which is not how I would do it if I owned the company still.”

Mackenzie has had to outsource solutions to F1's problemsCredit:
Getty Images

Some of the teams are far more forthright in their criticism. A few years ago Bob Fernley, of Force India, accused CVC of “raping the sport”. He stands by that view.

“All their actions have been taken to extract as much money from the sport as possible and put as little in as possible,” Fernley said. “They wanted to exit with the IPO and in their enthusiasm to do that they put in position the current contracts which are totally devastating.”

A deal that came about 10 years ago in controversial circumstances remains controversial today. And the future is uncertain. Discussions with media mogul John Malone’s Liberty Global and broadcaster Discovery came to nothing. A consortium led by Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphins owner, and Qatar seemed close but they have not met Mackenzie’s valuation of the sport at £6 billion.

Now the sport waits for a conclusion before it knows where it is going. The thought of another 10 years of CVC fills some in F1 with as much dread as the prospect of racing Clark’s Lotus around Monaco does for Mackenzie.